


Afterlife

by WeaponMerchant



Series: When You're Deprived Of The Right To Die [1]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Control Ending, F/F, In Thedas, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Work In Progress, brought back to life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-13 01:19:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeaponMerchant/pseuds/WeaponMerchant
Summary: The idea of death, for most people, would bring fear and panic to their hearts. However for Shepard, it was a welcomed change. She would have preferred to live and be at peace after the Reaper War, but the afterlife came as a close second. Unfortunately, another mission had woken her up from six feet under and it was sent by someone she had least expected.





	1. You Do Not Have Proper Authorization

She took a deep breath, slowly as she eases up on a few broken ribs. There was only one last mission before this war ends, and that was to activate the Crucible. Her retirement plan, unfortunately, will have to undergo some serious editing. As Shepard brought both her hands on the two handles in front of her, pain on her body that was slowly subsiding flared once more.

“Grrkkh...!” The initial pain made it hard to keep on her legs, and something between a cry and a hiss still made it out through her clenched teeth. She wondered for the nth time whether this was a good choice or not, before chuckling weakly.

_‘A bit too late to change my mind now.’_

_Klak!_

Her legs buckled from the pain and she fell on her knees, her right hand almost slipping off. _‘No, this won’t do.’_ It was like innumerous needles piercing her skin, digging through her flesh and deep in her bones. Her cybernetic implants were all fried and her vision was a mangled mess of black spots and striking bright lights, but her attention wasn’t there.

Her thoughts went to her crew- both the living and the dead. Their faces start racing through her mind.

Then Earth. The slums where she grew up. Gunfire and blood and the first man she killed.

The pain on her body felt different now. It burned, followed by an ice-cold chill that seemed worse than the previous one.

And then, a light buzz. Numbness. She could smell ashes and she wonders if it was her turning into a pile of one.

A feeling of impending death weighted heavy in her guts, and suddenly she was anxious. She was reminded of a very familiar face.

Freckled blue skin, and crystal blue eyes that looked like they could see through her every action.

_‘I’m sorry.’_

All she could leave behind was a broken promise of marriage and little blue children.

 _‘...no. I’ll catch up. This’ll just be a tiny setback.’_ Mordin’s words floated up. Wheel of life? Asaris live long, anyway. _‘Or maybe thinking hard about coming back from the dead will make my future AI-self build me a new body, not like it’s anything new.’_

Blind optimism left a bitter taste in her mouth. _‘...I’m sorry.’_

_‘Fuck. Did I make the right choice?’_

There wasn’t any time left.

Shepard wondered during the last seconds of her life what the afterlife is like. Maybe soft, white clouds with baby angels hovering over a marble gate that should lead to heaven, as how it is depicted typically. If not, maybe it would be the underworld, akin to a dark dungeon, the screams of the countless souls she sent there ringing in her ears. Or will it just be nothing? Just darkness?

_‘Wherever it is, I’ll be able to close my eyes.’_

_‘And sleep.’_

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

[Cognizance Parameters rundown initiated.]

[Identified as: Shepard, Supreme Commander. NO.00000001; quasi-organic body detected.]

[Memory Update …20…45%]

[Cerebral implant blueprint out-of-date. Incorporating Arthenn technology. Completed.]

Loud mechanical clicks and a headache hammering inside her head stirred her awake. Her eyelids felt heavy and all her limbs weren’t responding correctly. She could feel her body moving, however. It was a second too late before she realized it was falling rather than moving.

[Structure framework modification completed. Fine-tuning settings.]

[Memory Update …57…59%]

Shepard hit the floor with her left shoulder first, then the side of her head, before blacking out once more.

[Mem0R7…]

[Mem&#Y_U004te 3R#$R…45%_#.nkn0wn.]

[Access Denied.]

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Cold. Both the surface of the floor and the air. This time, Shepard felt like she woke up from a hundred-year-long sleep, stretching out her stiff body as she sat up. Only then did her eyes wander around her surroundings.

White. The walls, the floor, the ceiling- the ceiling was _glowing_. Still white. A subtle glow, just enough for a person to have a clear view of the room. The place was roughly six meters wide, and it stretched out to about twenty meters in front of her, akin to a hall. A door could clearly be seen on the other side of the room. The design looked surprisingly modern, but it still felt odd.

Foreign. Unlike any design she had ever seen. Yet something nagging at the back of her head told her that it was also familiar.

Only then as she focused amidst the silence did she feel a feint hum coming from… within her? She looked down to examine her body, then the slow realization came that she was completely naked. No wonder it was cold. It felt strange. Her left leg and arm was- as she stood up cautiously, humming. Close to a rhythmic pulse that was probably too faint for normal people to notice. Even most of her face, and at least a good half of her body, was pulsing along.

 _‘Wait.’_ It was then that Shepard connected the unusual parts of her body to where Miranda said were full of cybernetic implants. A bitter smile appeared on her lips.

This was now the _second_ time she was pulled back from her permanent vacation that is death.

“What’s wrong with the galaxy  _this_ time around?”

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Half a day later, Shepard finds herself still lost in what was starting to feel like a stupidly complicated labyrinth. Every wall, floor, and ceiling looked _exactly_ the same to the room she originated from. If not for the varying tools and computers in some rooms, she would be even more lost as it was. The place was larger than she expected and judging from the lack of any sort of window, she was most likely underground. She had to scratch out crashing some of the devices to the wall to forcefully break out, though it was still a plan reserved in case of escalating desperation, at least.

To make it worse, she was still naked and was starting to feel slightly famished. Shepard has been through more than a hundred rooms and a large assortment of hallways and not a _single_ piece of fabric could be found. It didn’t help that an unsettling thought from earlier kept flashing in her mind. The facility was completely free of dust or any other sign of declining. Shepard first thought the place was abandoned since it was eerily quiet aside from the noises her footsteps and occasional grumblings made, but the signs she noticed herself proved otherwise. Besides, how did she end up here?

This left her in an awfully foul mood, especially when she’s accompanied only by her thoughts in silence, bar her echoing footsteps.

One would think that saving the entire galaxy _thrice_ would be enough to get some quality time off without any sort of strange and/or life-threatening occurrence but _nooo_. She’s Commander Shepard, after all. Magnet to all things dreadful and dangerous. An onlooker to this scene might be able to see dark clouds above her head if they squint hard enough.

Fortunately, life wasn’t an absolute dick. The next room she stumbled upon looked like a control room. A functioning one. The whole facility wasn’t completely devoid of power, in evidence of the functioning lights and some apparatuses that were only on standby mode. It was as if the whole place was saving power and it briefly reminded her of Ilos. It was a square room, with only about five meters of length for each side, and one humongous screen occupying two-thirds of the wall at the end of the room. There was an input station below the screen and along the left and right side, and in the middle of the room was something similar to a cylindrical table with a glass surface.

The moment Shepard took a step inside, every apparatus in the room flickered with faint red light as they all come to life. The table, in particular, caught her attention as a red hologram of… something appeared.

「Human. 」

She flinched at the title, then shot a glare towards the source of the deep voice that was almost like a growl in the middle of the room. However, all the displeasure on her face disappeared and was instead replaced with surprise as she took a closer look on what it was. It was a lizard. Err, a humanoid lizard. She was definitely not expecting this. Its robust body that almost rivaled Vega’s was covered with minute scales and both its legs were like a Quarian’s, except every limb had five digits that was tipped with sharp, dangerous-looking claws. The neck was a foot long- possibly more, and four twisted spikes protruded upwards from the base of its head and smaller spikes stretched from its neck, back, and down to the tip of its two-meter long thick tail. Its scarce body armor was fitted and thinner than what she’s used to seeing, although judging from the design that looked organic at second glance- like chitin and metal melded together- she had a feeling it could still hold its own in an all-out gunfight. Heck, it looked as intimidating as a Krogan, especially with the slit-eyes akin to a predator watching a prey.

It took her quite a while before she snapped out of reverie and assume back to being tense and guarded.

“Who are you?” Her voice sounded hoarse. It was the first time she spoke out loud since she woke up in this place, excluding the mumbles and whispers that anchored her state of mind from running wild.

「I am the Sentinel. 」

“Sentinel?” The voice sounded cold and monotonous even for a VI. “Of what?”

The hologram stared at her intently for a few seconds before replying. It was unknown to Shepard that it had scanned her thoroughly.

「I am the Sentinel of this domain. You do not have proper authorization to stay. Leave at once, human. 」

The corner of her lips twitched. The thing wasn’t making sense at all, and as much as she wanted answers- _reasons_ \- as to why she's alive, a small part inside of her continuously insisted on going back to somewhere that made sense. Somewhere familiar. Like her homeworld. A brief recess to find out what happened to her loved ones before jumping into the fire. “Then tell me where I am, exactly. I will leave as soon as I get directions on how to get to Earth. Sol System. Local Cluster.”

「No. 」

“…”

「You do not have proper authorization to know. 」

“…”

「Leave. 」

“…”

It took a bit of self-control for Shepard to refrain from letting out a long string of curses then and there, and it left her face taut with quite a funny expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for giving the time to read this. I'm not used to writing and this is my first fan fiction. I've had enough of the storyline for this just vaguely floating inside my head and decided to write it down, albeit awkwardly. Comments, criticism, and suggestions are wholly welcome!
> 
> (Everything is still a work in progress, and I might decide to revise the first chapter if I think it necessary.)


	2. Heading Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The VI was a bust. It seemed it would be better to prioritize her survival for now before it was too late. Answers will have to come later.

After a long while of forcing a conversation with the VI, with half of the time it stating Shepard’s lack of proper authorization, and fiddling with the controls on the stations she didn’t even understand, she finally knew where the armory was through a general map from the giant screen and briskly made her way there. The map showed an area by the edge of the underground facility similar to a crew’s quarters and beside it were two big storage rooms that weren’t marked with any indication of what was inside.

Her gut instinct told her she would probably find something useful in there.

Usually the doors would automatically open when she stood about a foot in front of it, but the entrance to the storage rooms didn’t budge at all. Instead, the surface of the smooth white door seemed to liquify, as small crimson scales the size of a thumbnail formed from the corners and quickly spread across the whole surface of the door before hardening to something that looked the same to the design of the armor the VI wore except much more solid-looking. She could even feel it pulse, as if it was organic, and all of her thoughts of attempting to touch the scales vanished into thin air. She didn’t want to assume of any implications directed at her now-foreign body. At least not until she gets rid of the backlog of questions in her mind.

“A simple, monotonous ‘access denied’ or a warning blare would’ve sufficed.” She muttered after a short humorless laugh as she stepped back and made her way to the crew’s quarters instead. “Not like I can blast a hole through it, right?”

The sight was considerably unnerving, even for someone who has been through way too much like Shepard. Especially since she was pretty sure this sort of technology didn’t exist in the current galaxy, and she felt more anxious as she thought of that.

Was this the future?

How long was she dead?

Why was she alone in this place, even?

Shepard stopped in her tracks, just right in front of the entrance of where she wanted to go. The door opened automatically, but she didn’t budge. Her face was a mask devoid of emotions but her eyes looked lost.

She was lost.

This whole place didn't seem real. The last thing she remembered was firing the Crucible. She should be dead.

What was she supposed to do when she was supposed to be dead?

Irritation made its way inside her mind as she silently criticized the one who brought her back to life and whatever it was that they did to her. If they were going to spend _this_ much effort to bring her back then why weren’t they showing their ugly mug to her.

A sudden existential crisis was something she did not want to deal with right now. 

Closing her eyes for a moment, she slowly took a deep breath. _‘two… three… exhale…’_ Her scrunched eyebrows and clenched teeth relaxed as she did. Losing her nerves now wouldn’t do her any good. If she really _is_ alone and wasn’t under surveillance, she needed to find anything she needed to survive from whatever this place is. Food, weapons, clothes- _especially_ clothes.

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Shepard slipped on a light grey vest that fell until mid-thigh, zipping it close from her left side up to her front with enough space for it to be loose around her neck, then moved on to a darker shade of pants before buckling on a pair of weird military boots that was just her size but had all the wrong grooves. The whole living area was just too large, enough to house an entire battalion from the Alliance’s Infantry Regiment if need be, and she had to go inside more rooms than she’d expected to find suitable clothes that didn’t have holes on the back or extra pair of sleeves for an extra pair of arms.

The vest and pants were perfectly fitted to her figure- most likely due to this facility’s most convenient technological advancement that is one-size-fits-all, which she found very convenient. The boots were a bit uncomfortable, but it will suffice for now.

She leisurely slung an empty bandolier over her shoulder along with a matching belt pouch as she scanned the tiny room for anything she missed, then looked at the mirror in front of her one last time. Every bunk room only had three perfectly identical things inside them. A white metal-framed bed, a storage trunk fixed on the wall for uniforms and personal effects, and a mirror big enough to show her upper body.

The reflection that gazed back at her was her own face, just as she last remembered. It was still hers. Wild raven hair over her shoulders, green emerald eyes, and two faded vertical scars with one under each eye. It wasn’t the flesh that received the pain from the steel knife that gave her those scars, not anymore.

But she can accept that, because it was familiar. She knew how she got it, _why_ she got it. The memories were still in her head. She’s still Shepard. Right?

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Walking back to the control room was faster this time. Well, mainly because Shepard was hurrying, but it still spoke volumes of her growing familiarity to this place since the way back was full of turns. She wasn’t aware of how long it has been since she woke up anymore. It was at least a day- she hoped it was just a day.

There wasn’t any food. Not in the entire facility. All the food packs she encountered in the crew’s quarters were something similar to nutrient paste that was way, _way_ past their due date, or food that was too far gone that it turned into a serving of rotten paste. She needed to leave, if there was nothing and no one here that could make clear of her situation.

The VI didn’t appear this time as she entered the control room, but it also powered down most of the stations along with it. Whether it was due to the dwindling power of the whole facility or some other reason, she was just relieved it never tried to actively get rid of her. The main terminal with the big display was still functioning, and Shepard immediately accessed it to look for the map again. Anything to point towards the exit.

_‘There.’_

Just a short distance away from her current location, at a very large quadrangle, were several elevators lined up. Whether they worked or not was another question. Before she made her way there, she checked the available surveillance footage for the whole facility, trying her luck if she could get a glimpse of what was aboveground so she didn’t have to walk blind.

A few seconds of tapping on the polished terminal surface had won her her desired objective.

Except, the image was too bleak. Above this place was a building to house the elevators, a bit like a giant warehouse in style, and it was oddly fashioned in stone. The surrounding area around it, up until the horizon, was barren dirt land.

“Fuck.”

She brought up the images coming from all four directions and checked every detail she might’ve missed. The east and south yielded no result, while the west had distant mountains. Unfortunately, it was too far out of reach that she’d die of starvation three times over before she’d arrive there. The north however, had traces of trees and shrubbery, albeit dead ones, if she squinted hard enough. There was also a possible stream coming from the west and extending to the east, just three klicks north of the facility, but the information pertaining the pictures were confusing. The timestamp on the images varied, and she didn’t even know what they meant. It also didn’t help that the system felt like it had two different languages running. The timestamps and linguistics that appeared while she navigated the terminal was in one language that she could instinctively read- more fluent the more she saw it- while the other was a language pertaining to what was likely information reports and _really_ important-looking articles, which, of course, was completely foreign to her.

“Now comes the age-old question of which came first.” She muttered under her breath as she looked back and forth between two pictures, with the image capturing the small, narrow river on the right side. “‘136 FA’ or ‘2310 FA’…?”

_'Are these years, months, or just days? Heck, they look like hours to me.’_

Time was running out regardless she knew the answer or not, so she hurriedly made her way to the elevators and thought about it on the go. The current safest choice right now was going north. The mountain range to the west was just too far, while she can investigate the remains of the dried-up river up north, if it _is_ dry and barren. Shepard is definitely expecting the worse.

Shepard arrives and she finds the given label of ‘central quadrangle’ to be lacking- it was enough space to fit a geth dreadnaught! It looked like a vehicle bay, one that is missing its vehicles, she supposed. It was also the first time she witnessed a mess in this entire place, since even all the uniforms from the quarters were neatly folded without exception. Large, empty cargo boxes were spread across its metallic-grey floor, tools looked like they were just thrown everywhere, and oddly enough, so were _paper_ sheets and even books _._

The last time she had ever seen paper with her own two eyes was when she bought a poetry book for Ashley in Huerta Memorial a few months ago. Okay, it wasn’t too long ago, but the frequency was just once-twice every few years. It was an uncommon commodity ever since she joined the Alliance.

She picked up a few books on her way, scanning the cover or the first page for a clue on what they were.

_Mixed Unit Tactics_

_Annals of the Dimensional War_

_The Remati’s Truths_

_Compilation of Early Reports Regarding the-_

“Elvhenan?” Shepard mumbled in bewilderment. Only half of the things she picked up made general sense, yet the words she _did_ recognize gave her even more questions. Dimensional War? She hadn’t heard that before. If it was war, then this place is really a military garrison, but who was using this place and who were they fighting against? Building it underground was quite odd too. It was something she’ll have to read when she had time, if it doesn’t become fire fuel first.

Shepard stopped a few meters from the elevators, glad that the distance she had to walk was the width, rather than the length that was over a hundred thousand meters, of the vehicle bay. As for the elevators themselves, they varied in different sizes- from one that could fit six shuttles side-by-side to a normal elevator for about ten people. Not everything was functioning either, the giant elevators were out of the equation, while only small ones were on stand-by.

_‘It’d be enough.’_

She stepped inside one of the elevators. There weren’t any symbols that showed which floor it was on nor any buttons to press, which resulted on her standing inside the unresponsive elevator for a few seconds. Clearing her throat out of habit, she attempted voice command. “Up.”

And then the entryway closed.

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

_The crunch of several pairs of footsteps on heavy snow sounded out as fur-clad men hurried along the halls of a dilapidated castle ruin. A middle-aged man, his face covered with dark unkempt beard and a build larger than most of the people around him, led the way. A helm fashioned from a bear’s skull sat atop his head, the red warpaint smeared on it glinting from the light of the sunless sky. He wore it like a crown, rightfully so, as he was the leader of this hunting pack. They had set up a temporary encampment within the ruins, a decision most of his men disapproved of yet none had voiced out._

_Superstitions and hearsay smothered this place enough that most of the tribes in the Sunless Lands avoided it like a plague. But they had no choice. Food was scarce all-year round, yet in the recent months the few animals that can survive the icy plains moved farther south, as if running away from something. Hunting too far from the tribe was dangerous, and a camp out in the open would be swept away by the night storms._

_He had no choice._

_Yells could be heard in the distance now, but the words he heard made him grimace. The scout who reported back to him spoke of an intruder that appeared when the walls of the castle ‘opened’, but why were his men fighting amongst themselves?_

_“Don’t stop me, Karim! We need to kill her!”_

_“Are you blind? She looks human. She is not an outsider! Do not do anything rash before Vashir arrives!”_

_“No! You saw. She came from inside- nobody was enter the forbidden depths! What other explana-“_

_“Silence!” The leader, Vashir, roared. The commotion was immediately cut off, the yells coming from his men subsided and they turned their heads towards him. With the exception of two men. Karim, his right-hand man, had his hand on his sheathed sword, ready to act when needed as he kept his eyes on the intruder and another youth who had a longbow drawn and aimed towards the intruder. It was his brother._

_His eyes stayed on his brother for a few seconds before it arrived at the intruder. It was a female human, dressed too lightly for the weather with cloth vest and fitted pants, her slightly shivering arms raised up in an attempt to signal surrender. He could at least tell that much, but when he looked at her striking green eyes, Vashir saw calm. An unnatural calmness that seemed to disregard all the arrows and swords pointed at her. It was the look of a patient predator towards its prey._

_“Vesremir.” He called out to his brother without taking his eyes off the female. “Calm down. Put down your bows and sheath your swords.”_

_It sounded more of an order for every one of his men, which they reluctantly followed, but never dropped their guard even a little bit. His brother, however, was much more stubborn as he kept his bow drawn. This was Vesremir’s first hunt and also his coming-of-age trial, so Vashir could understand his little brother’s nerves, especially with their tribe's food supply dangerously low, but killing an unarmed person that is possibly an innocent won’t do anyone a favor._

_“She came from the other world. Like what the wisewomen said. Everybody knows of the omen.” The trembling words coming from Vesremir was close to a whisper, yet everyone who had ears had heard it. Only one thought appeared in everyone’s mind, brought crashing to reality as another voice amongst the crowd spoke out in fear._

_“Reapers.”_

_The expression on Vashir’s face darkened. He never believed in superstitions, much less prophecies. It was a tale forgotten by the entirety of Thedas, yet still spoken in reverence by the southern Chasind folk, a bloodstained legacy connected to their human origins. To him, it was a bedtime story, at most._

_For now, he had to make his men snap out of it, but before he could say a single word, the unwelcomed guest beat him to it. She was frowning, confused at the fear and agitation towards her, and she opened her mouth and spoke slowly and deliberately in a language unknown to them all. That had made the situation turn for the worse._

_At the same time, it was the beginning of what made Vashir believe in the legends to be true, but it didn’t come cheap. The truth had come with a price he had to pay with blood._

 

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

 

Upon the day the mountain shrinks, a single seed will take root on the land.

They have no beginning, nor do they have an end.

Only the rain of blood and betrayal will mark their arrival as their numbers block the sky.

Once they reap all life through destruction, the world shall be cleansed anew.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think it's a bit long-winded? I'll keep working on it. I'm somewhat of a slow writer so it will take a few days to a week for a chapter, possibly even more. Flemeth's up next chapter. >.>  
> Comments, criticism, and suggestions are wholly welcome!


End file.
